Israel looks set to press on despite rulingpublished at 17:20 British Summer Time 24 May

17:20 BST 24 May

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem

This was the outcome Israel sought to avoid: a demand to halt a military operation the government regards as essential for the defeat of Hamas, the return of hostages and the security of Gaza’s border with Egypt.

But there is no immediate indication that Israel will change course. Its tanks are pushing closer to the centre of Rafah and just as the ICJ ruling was being read out, a series of air strikes sent a huge black cloud billowing over Rafah.

Some of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline colleagues have reacted with rage, accusing the court of antisemitism and siding with Hamas.

But for Netanyahu’s critics, this is one more sign of Israel’s growing international isolation.

The country says it’s gone to great lengths to ensure that civilians are out of harm’s way, before sending troops into Rafah.

And it says it’s making sure that food and other vital supplies reach Gaza.

There are elements of truth to both of these arguments. More than 800,000 civilians have moved away from Rafah.

And while it’s true that very little aid has entered the southern Gaza Strip since the Rafah offensive began almost three weeks ago, Israel has allowed hundreds of trucks of commercial goods to enter, meaning that in parts of the territory, food is available (if not necessarily affordable).

Despite repeated warnings of famine, especially in the north, mass starvation has yet to manifest itself. If anything, the situation in the north may have improved somewhat, thanks to the opening of additional crossing points.

But the court seemed unimpressed. A fresh wave of mass displacement, it argued, represented a significant new threat to the lives and wellbeing of the Palestinian population, which demanded fresh action.

South Africa argued that Rafah represented “the last line of defence” for the Gaza Strip. For Rafah to suffer the same fate as the territory's other cities, it said, could lead to further irreparable damage to the entire Palestinian population.

This is what the court is trying to stop. Israel says that is not the purpose of its operation in the south and looks set to press on.

Tom Bateman
State Department correspondent

The US is still formulating its response to the court’s ruling.

I’ve just been on a reporters call with James O’Brien, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs. The call was to announce a trip to Europe next week by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

I asked if the administration had a response to the ICJ ruling, but the official moderating the call said they “may need to get back” separately on that, while O’Brien joked that the moderator was “forbidding” him from commenting, before adding: “I don’t know.”

All major US policy decisions on Israel are made by one person - President Biden. There will be a form of words, likely being put together now by Biden’s National Security Council at the White House, and bounced around top officials in the State Department and Pentagon.

The US has previously said it wouldn’t support a full scale military offensive by Israel on Rafah, but has stopped short so far of viewing the current assault in those terms, instead calling it a “limited operation”.

When asked previously about South Africa’s case, the White House has said it “firmly” rejects the contention that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.

We’re wrapping up our live coverage of the ICJ ruling shortly, so in case you missed it earlier here are the top lines from today’s announcement:

• In a dramatic ruling, the UN’s top court has ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza
• The International Court of Justice also ordered Israel to allow the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to be kept open up for humanitarian aid “at scale” and demanded the release of all Israeli hostages still held in Gaza
• It acted in support of a South African application last week which sought a number of measures against Israel, accusing it of stepping up what it says is a genocide
• Israel has vehemently denied the allegation and signalled it would ignore any order to halt its operation. Ahead of Friday's ruling, a government spokesperson said "no power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza"
• Hamas, which runs Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, have both welcomed the ruling
• Minutes after it was delivered, Israel warplanes carried out a series of air strikes on the Shaboura camp in the centre of Rafah
• South Africa requested the emergency measures as part of a larger case, claiming Israel was committing genocide in Gaza
• The ICJ can make legally binding rulings in disputes between countries, but has little way of enforcing its orders

You can read more in our news story here, while this explainer examines South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.

We still have a couple of posts to come from our correspondents, so stay with us.

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz says Israel will carry on with its "just and necessary" war against Hamas to return its hostages and ensure its security.

He said the Israeli military would operate in accordance with international law and try to avoid harming civilians.

"The State of Israel is committed to continue fighting to return its hostages and promise the security of its citizens - wherever and whenever necessary - including in Rafah," he said in a statement.

The ICJ has ordered Israel to stop its offensive in Rafah. People in Rafah say warplanes struck the southern Gaza city minutes after the court made its ruling.

South Africa's Jewish Board of Deputies has criticised the country's government for bringing the case against Israel at the ICJ, accusing it of "using a legal processes for something that requires political solutions".

"This is especially when the ICJ has no jurisdiction over the brutal terror organisation Hamas," it said.

Bringing the ICJ case had failed to save lives, the SAJBD said.

"South Africa has forever tainted itself in its a willingness to overlook the horrendous crimes of Hamas, impugning its reputation as honest peace broker," it said.

UK-based charity Oxfam describes the ICJ ruling as a "critical intervention to stop Israel's military onslaught on Rafah", and says Israel must "immediately comply" and halt its "brutal offensive".

Sally Abi-Khalil, the aid organisation's Middle East regional director, calls on the Israeli authorities to "release its stranglehold on the aid pipeline" and allow in some 4,500 trucks carrying food, water and medicine that are currently stuck in al-Arish, the Egyptian city closest to Gaza.

She also urges countries to stop supplying weapons to Israel "immediately", saying if they continue they are defying the ICJ ruling and "complicit in any war crimes committed in Gaza".

Israel has insisted it is facilitating the entry of aid and has blamed aid agencies for failing to distribute the supplies that enter Gaza.

Anne Soy
BBC News, Nairobi

Speaking during a campaign walkabout near Nelson Mandela's home in Soweto, President Cyril Ramaphosa quoted the late leader: "We will not be completely free until the people of Palestine are free."

Former President Mandela was an ardent proponent of Palestinian nationhood. Ramaphosa said he taught South Africans about the connection with Palestinians.

"A lack of justice for Palestine was also a lack of justice for South Africa," he said.

Foreign ministry chief Zane Dangor described the ruling as "groundbreaking", referring to the fact it was the first time the court had made an explicit order to Israel to halt its actions in a part of Gaza.

"We hope the UN Security Council takes note of this," he said, adding that South Africa will be approaching the UNSC with the order.

As a reminder, South Africa brought the original case before the ICJ that has led to today's provisional measures.

We're getting some more reaction from Israel and Hamas now in the wake of today's ICJ ruling.

A Hamas spokesman tells the BBC: "We welcome the decision of the International Court of Justice, which demands that the brutal Zionist entity stop its aggression against our people in the city of Rafah."

Meanwhile Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid says: "The fact that the ICJ did not even directly connect the end of the military operation in Rafah to the release of the hostages and to Israel's right to defend itself against terror is an abject moral failure."

He says that Israel "was brutally attacked from Gaza" and forced to defend itself against Hamas, adding: "There is no country in the world which wouldn't defend itself against an attack like that."

Rushdi Abualouf
BBC News Gaza correspondent

Minutes after the decision of the International Court of Justice, warplanes launched a series of air strikes on the Shaboura camp in the centre of the city of Rafah.

A local activist at nearby Kuwait Hospital told the BBC that the sounds of bombing were terrifying and clouds of black smoke hung over buildings in the Shaboura camp.

They said the rescue teams in the hospital were unable to reach the site of the raids due to the intensity of the strikes.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer has been speaking to the BBC: "There is no power in the world that will push us to commit a public suicide, because that's what this is, to stop our war against Hamas."

Israeli cabinet ministers are meeting later to discuss the ruling but government officials have previously said that no power on earth would stop Israel protecting its citizens and pursuing Hamas in Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) - which runs parts of the occupied West Bank - and Hamas - which runs Gaza and attacked nearby Israeli communities on 7 October, sparking the current war - have welcomed the decision.

However Hamas says the call to end the offensive should cover all of Gaza and not just Rafah.

The ruling "represents an international consensus to end the war on the Gaza Strip," PA presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeina tells Reuters news agency.

We're getting some reaction now from South Africa, which has welcomed today's ruling.

As a reminder, South Africa had asked the ICJ to order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah as an emergency measure, saying its actions in southern Gaza amount to a “genocidal” operation and threaten the survival of the Palestinian people.

"I believe it's a much stronger, in terms of wording, set of provisional measures, very clear call for a cessation," Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told public broadcaster SABC, AFP reports.

The ICJ, the UN's top court, has just published its ruling in which it ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive and other actions in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

It's exact wording was that Israel must "immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part".

• You can read the ruling in full here, external

ICJ order designed to prevent situation in Gaza further deterioratingpublished at 14:50 British Summer Time 24 May

14:50 BST 24 May

Anna Holligan
Reporting from The Hague

This is the first time the ICJ has issued a ruling that compels Israel to significantly change its military operation in Gaza.

The international panel of judges said that Israel had not convinced them that the evacuation efforts and related measures that Israel affirms to have undertaken to enhance the security of civilians in the Gaza Strip, and in particular those recently displaced from from Rafah, are sufficient to alleviate the immense risk to which the Palestinian population is exposed as a result of the military offensive in Rafah.

The case was brought by South Africa under the genocide convention, created 1948 after the Holocaust to give legal foundation to the words never again.

South Africa argued Palestinian's inalienable right to protection under that convention was at risk of being violated and called on the ICJ, the UN's highest court, as guardian of that treaty - to step in.

Today's decision isn't about whether or not genocidal acts are being committed in Gaza, but rather whether there is a plausible risk to the Palestinian peoples right to protection.

This order is designed to act as an injunction to stop the situation from deteriorating or at least keep it in a kind of holding pattern, until the judges consider the wider merits of the case.

Judge Salam also spoke about the situation of Israeli hostages who are still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

"The court expresses grave concern over the fate of the hostages... and calls for their immediate and unconditional release," he tells the court.

"We find it deeply troubling that many still remain in captivity," he adds.

The ICJ has made several orders including for Israel to:

• halt military operation in Rafah
• open the Rafah border crossing with Egypt for the entry of humanitarian aid at scale
• ensure access to Gaza for investigators and fact-finding missions
• report to the court within a month on its progress in applying these measures

The ICJ ordered Israel to report to the court within one month on its progress in applying the measures ordered today.

As a reminder, while ICJ rulings are legally binding, in practice they are unenforceable by the court.

Judge Salam has said the ICJ is ordering Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah.

He said the current situation there entailed further risks of irreparable harm to the rights of people in Gaza.

He said the situation had changed since the ICJ made its previous orders and conditions had been met for new emergency measures in the case.

The court rules that Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and other actions in Rafah, citing the "immediate risk" to the Palestinian people.

The court's president is turning to recent events in Rafah now, with the Israeli military offensive starting there on 7 May and some 800,000 Palestinians displaced as of 18 May.

He's quoting various UN officials who have repeatedly underscored the risks of a military offensive there.

Those risks have now started to materialise and will intensify if the offensive continues, the judges quotes UN officials as saying.